Tag Archives: Solve

This street artist is not someone I knew, or ever will know. Because he was murdered in 2008. I found out about his death when a blog I follow on chicagonow.com posted a note that his murderer had recently been found guilty.

But he’s someone I could have known. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Art, where I used to work. I could easily have walked past his art on my way from the Blue Line to Union station on one of my visits home to see family.

So even though I didn’t know him, I wanted to mention his art and his passing here. Because really, he’s not that much different from a lot of the kids I did know on the Chicago streets. Not a lot different from any of us.

Graffiti artists work over model CTA trains in exhibit

Street artists get to show their stuff legally tonight at the A.Okay Loves CTA (Chicago Train Art) show. About 50 urban artists use O-scale model trains for their tagging pleasure in the show at A Okay Official from 6 to 10 pm Friday (tonight) at 3270 N. Clark St.

One of the featured artists is Solve, who caused a stir this week on the Blue Line when he did an installation piece on seat near the Hobo Corner.

He stenciled the words “We are experiencing legal difficulties” on a TV, plugged it into the secret outlet, and sent it on its merry way into the morning CTA rush hour.

What the Hell?

Chicago, freeze-dried bodies, kids sleeping on the streets. That's what this blog is about. What's what my novel is about. Dark urban graffiti, hard rock music and doing what you gotta do to survive. Small glimpses of the novel mix with snapshots from real life. You tell me which posts are real and which are fiction. If you can.